Enhance continuous water quality monitoring, Penghu desalination plant environmental review passes initial screening

Taipei, July 9 (CNA) The Penghu Desalination Plant project plans to increase its production capacity to serve as a water backup for climate change. Environmental reviewers at an initial screening meeting today suggested that the developer enhance the explanation of the continuous water quality monitoring system and include seabed topography changes in underwater inspections. The case was approved for initial screening after revisions.

The Ministry of Environment convened the second initial screening meeting for the project group of the "Fourth Environmental Impact Difference Analysis Report for the Construction and Expansion Project of Penghu County Desalination Plant (Updating Group 4500CMD Desalination Unit)" today.

The developer, Taiwan Water Corporation's Seventh Regional Management Office, stated that the current modification involves replacing the original 3000CMD (cubic meters per day) package unit with a new 4500CMD unit. After the change, the plant's normal production capacity will increase to 17,000CMD, which is still within the upper limit of the total production capacity of 20,000CMD approved in previous environmental impact assessment documents.

The developer said that due to the increasing demand for domestic and tourism water in the Penghu area, the existing desalination unit is being replaced to strengthen backup capacity in response to climate change.

During the first initial screening meeting, environmental impact assessment committee members expressed concern about the impact of brine discharge on the salinity and water quality of nearby sea areas under extreme weather conditions and requested the developer to strengthen mitigation measures.

The developer stated today that a continuous monitoring system will be installed at the discharge outlet, and the monitoring data will be connected to the Ministry of Environment's Public Information Query System for Automatic Continuous Monitoring of Major Point Source Effluent. The monitoring items include suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand, pH, conductivity, water flow, and water temperature.

The developer emphasized that if the critical standard value is exceeded, the monitoring data and equipment operating status will be immediately verified to determine the cause of the abnormality. At the same time, the developer promises to conduct annual inspections and investigations of the discharge outlet and pipeline route using divers or underwater cameras.

Environmental reviewers today asked the developer to enhance the explanation of the continuous monitoring system and micro-sensor related planning content. For underwater camera inspections, it is hoped that seabed topography changes can be monitored. It is recommended that this case pass the initial screening and be submitted to the Environmental Impact Assessment Conference for review. (Editor: Li Hengshan) 1150709

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